Sunday, August 10, 2008

Kiwi Trip 2008 - part 1

Hi all, finally got down to blogging about the 20-day NZ trip that Haz and I had gone on starting from 1 Jul 08... Overall, it was an awesome and wonderfully scenic self-drive trip, covering in excess of 3,500km on a Ford Mondeo starting from Christchurch and ending in Auckland... Will be blogging in parts and here I go...

Day 1: 1/7 (Sydney – Christchurch)

Haz and I brought with us contrasting feelings to the airport for our morning flight to Christchurch; sad and heavy hearts – about leaving Sydney after 2 years and; excited – as we embark on our longest holiday trip ever. Expectedly, we packed too much (>50kg) and had to be charged for 2 extra kgs (@ AU$20/kg!) after the flight staff had given us a 'discount' – expensive start!

Before we landed at Christchurch, we were treated to amazing sights of the Southern Alps!



Picked up our car from Yourway (cheap rental rates..) and checked into Hotel Ibis at Christchurch CBD. Nice cozy room at affordable rates. Went straight out to check out the city area, fully utilizing the ‘Eyewitness Travel Guide – NZ’ given to me by Nasa as a farewell gift. It is definitely a great and useful gift as many of the attractions planned for the tour are based on recommendations in the book.

in front of the Christ Church Cathedral




The Bridge of Remembrance


We then bought grocery (ie. instant noodles, fruits, snacks, etc) from ‘New World’ supermarket; equivalent of Woolies/Coles/NTUC, to prepare for our 20-day trip on the road before retiring for the night. Cold and frosty weather forecasted for the next few days… Fingers crossed...


Day 2: 2/7 (Christchurch – Lake Tekapo)
We departed Christchurch early around 8:30am, stopping at Rakaia, a small farming settlement which claims to be ‘the salmon capital of NZ’, for a photo with a large fiberglass fish.

We drove down further, turning off at Geraldine for a coffee break, before traveling inland to reach the stunning Lake Tekapo at around 1:30pm. The remarkably blue and clear waters of the lake greeted us as we entered the town. We visited the Church of the Good Shepherd and took photos with the Collie Dog statue. It appeared that a storm would be descending on us as we wandered closer to the lake to take more photos as the wind just got stronger. The raindrops from the drizzle hit us hard on our faces – very painful!


We wanted to take an Air Safari’s flight over Mount Cook and the many glaciers of the Southern Alps but the bad weather denied us the opportunity! We checked into our hotel room at The Godley Hotel which overlooked the lake and basically called it an early day! After an hour of nap, the weather cleared and the mountains and lake looked totally different an hour ago! Check out the photos!

@ 2pm


@ 3pm


@ 4pm

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Back in Singapore on 30th July 2008

Hi all, since my last post (since very long ago..), I have been inactive with my blogging and updates - Lots to update definitely (in due time) but just a quick update of my current whereabouts... Currently at Auckland (after spending the last 19 days in NZ) and will be flying off to Cairns (4 days) then Ayers Rock (3 days) before ending my month-long tour with Haz at Perth (4 days).

Will then be flying into Singapore on the 30th July night... for good for now... Till then, take good care everyone and will definitely be looking forward to catching with everyone real soon!

Friday, May 02, 2008

Finally a CA!

Results for my last CA module is out and finally, after 2 years of intensive work and studying, I'm done with the paper chase for now! A qualified Australian Chartered Accountant!
Had done better than expected! 3 merits out of the 5 papers.

Wanna make special mention of my dear wifey, Haz, who had supported me all this while and being ever so patient with me when I was busy juggling work and studies.. cooking for me, taking good care of me during these 2 years... With the conclusion of my CA studies, so is my secondment to PwC Syd... 2 more months to go... Will enjoy each day to the maximum as it comes... =)

Sunday, April 13, 2008

2 years of eternity..

Our 2nd year anniversary was celebrated in some style and it will be etched in our memory for years to come. We spent a great weekend over at the Blue Mountains chilling, bush-walking and spent quality time together...

We drove to Blue Mountains on Friday night and we were greeted with 2 very warm hosts of Windradyne Boutique Bed & Breakfast located just in front of Echo Point which overlooks the Three Sisters! Our room is called the Wimlah Suite which provides an expansive view of the 3 Sisters right in front of us! Wow... We were so impressed with the authentic Australiana home setting! You have to see it to believe it....

Our huge and comfortable four-poster bed


Part of the huge living room

Dining room where we have our breakfast daily

The main part of the living room with a huge fireplace

There was even a small fireplace (that works!) inside the huge bedroom and we did not miss the chance to relax in the claw bath in the ensuite of the room. Any wow! Haha..

We woke up not too late on Sat as the latest breakfast timing was at 8:30am... Home-cooked Australian style breakfast by our nice hosts... Delicious and filling! Before we left for our bush-walk, we couldn't resist to take a photo of how it look from our bedroom windows...

We went hiking at Wentworth Falls, a 15 drive from Katoomba. We took approximately 3 hrs to finish our route. We actually deviated from our originally planned route (which should take less than 2 hrs) and went on a hard route which brought us to the bottom of the waterfall! The steps were so steep at certain part of the route. Not planned but we got great photos to show, which is just awesome! Haha..

Proving that we made it there! Haha..


After the hike, we went to the town of Leura Mall and had our lunch and a bit of window shopping.. And entered the famous The Candy Store which sells lots of unique and unusual candies, choc, toffee, etc... We had nice Thai cusine for dinner at Katoomba and did a bit of star gazing outside Windradyne before we retired into the house for the night.

We made our way back to Sydney the following morning after another hearty breakfast. Great experience and definitely a romantic place for couples who wish to spend the weekend at Blue Mountains!

Promise my dear that we will spend many many happy days till the day we die... Love you Haz....

Sydney Royal Easter Show

One of the biggest event in Sydney - Sydney Royal Easter Show 2008 - took place during the 2 weeks around Easter. Haz and I attended this annual event, which comprises of agricultural show, amusement fair and park and lots of shows for visitors, on the Easter Monday public holiday after our Mel-Adel trip.


As expected, there were lots of fun-goers and many many kids who were mostly attracted to the funfair games and amusement rides. Both Haz and I were similarly attracted by the games galore and of course the huge softtoys available for grab by the luckiest and most skilful participants!
Livestocks (chicken, cattle, cows, pigs, sheep, etc) were exhibited and definitely a great educational tour for young kids! Do not think that you will see something of such scale in SG for the young... which fully showcase Australia as an agricultural country.




It was a great outing definitely! And of course, we did not leave the grounds empty handed. See below for what we left the event with! Haha.. Soft toys and showbags full of goodies packed and sold at great prices!
Hard won prizes from the games... Haha..


Both of us were on Sunday Telegraph! Nah.. Just a free shoot...

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Mel - Adel Trip 2008 (5)

22 Mar 08 (Sat) - Kangaroo Island

Another day tour - this time round with Sealink, apparently the monopoly in guided tour around Kangaroo Island. Price for this day trip is pricier than the other 2 we went on but it is a different location and with a whole different experience!

Got picked up at Adelaide Travellers' Inn (very near Angela's place) at 6am and then were transported to the Adelaide Central Bus Station where the big groups of us were transported to Cape Jervis for the ferry to Kangaroo Island (1 1/2 hr drive). The ferry is a huge one, able to transport vehicles across the waters too! The sea journey took an hr and it was a vomit-invoking one for me, with the ferry crossing the waters perpendicular to the direction fo the waves... I felt sick and did not drink more than a sip of the hot chocolate I bought on board... Haha..

I felt better once on stable land! And the cool sea breeze! We hit the road straight away with a 1 1/2 hr drive inland Kangaroo Island to the Flinders Chase National Park for lunch and some wild koala sighting. The lunch was at a Caravan Park and it was a 2 course authentic Aussie BBQ meat! Delicious I must say!



3 BBQ meat; chicken, beef and a mysterious tasting meat..


Straight after lunch, we took a short walk around the nearby park and sighted sleepy koalas... Nothing very exciting as we had spotted kangaroos/wallabies/koalas in Mel and even in Syd... Good way to exercise off our lunch though.

Remarkable Rocks is our next stop where huge naturally formed rocks were the main attractions.. Nothing very exciting but the sheer view of the brilliant seashores from the rocks was spectacular... Great photos and videos were taken for our memo!




Admiral's Arch broadwalk took us down a rugged cliff to an awesome rock arch, which is a nursery haven for New Zealand fur seals. We watched in awe as the numerous seals sun-tanned, dived and played around the rocks and water. Seeing them this close is a first for both Haz and I!

We got closer to the seals at our next stop, which is the main highlight of the trip. A guided Seal Bay tour, which brought us up close (within metres) of live seals on the beach... Apparently, Seal Bay is the spot where many seals rested after their diving and hunting trips (lasting up to 72 hours!) and we saw lots of sleeping seals.


sleepy seals

We even witnessed a mother seal who got back from her hunting trip and called out to her kids! What a way to experience kinship in wildlife up close! We got even luckier when we saw a bubbly baby seal moving around the beach trying to get other sleeping seals' attention.. It was so funny as these sleeping seals were obviously annoyed at this baby seal but it just kept going one seal after another.. Haha.. We caught it all in video; something for our future viewing...


A returning mother seal with its kid

The day on Kangaroo Island ended with that tour and we grabbed a quick bite before boarding the 7pm ferry back to Cape Jervis. The return trip was calm... Good for me as I had a full stomach... Slept most of the way back to Adelaide but still not enough.. After bathing and freshening up, it was already close to 11pm. Chatted with Angela over tea and Easter choc we bought yday at Glenelg before turning in close to 1am.

Took the 9am flight back to Syd and it was officially the end of our Mel-Adel trip! A very memorable trip and we were blessed with great weather and as a result, a huge majority of our 550 photos taken were GREAT!

Wanna thank Mich, Angela again for the kind hospitality and accommodation! Yishan for lending us her set of house keys! Timo and Soo for bringing us around when we were in Adel!

Stay tuned for more regular updates - Sydney Royal Easter Show, 2nd year wedding anniversary celebration at Blue Mountains and many many more...

Take good care all! 3 months to go before the end of my secondment and 4 months to gg back to SG!

Mel - Adel Trip 2008 (4)

21 Mar 08 (Friday) - Adelaide
Touched down at Adelaide airport just after 1030am - Adelaide is half an hr slower than Mel and Syd. Long time no see Angela! Haha.. She definitely looks more toned and tanned, working hard in gym in preparation for her wedding in Sep! Haha.. Our first stop was her shared rented townhouse with a Chinese couple who were away back home in China for the week.

We took a short break and headed off to the city centre and Chinatown. Alas! It was Good Friday and not many shops were open at all... including the famous Central Market (equivalent of Paddy Market). Oops, no place to buy the souvenirs that Max had requested us to get for him!!! Haha..

Can't go it, thus just take a photo outside lo.. haha..

Some other landmarks around Adelaide CBD before we drove to a nearby suburb for a Vietnamese lunch with Angela's 2 Malaysian born friends, Timo and Soo. Fun-loving couple and immediately was able to connect with both of them!



Thanks to Angela for helping us take the photos!


We actually had a long lunch from 1230 - 3-ish before both of them kindly led the way for us to a nearby beach and then to Glenelg beach - the most famous Adelaide beach, for a cuppa before we parted ways for the moment... The 3 of us then walked around the beachfront and enjoy the nice scenery before we drove back to Angela's place for a short rest.

The Skycity casino was on our itinerary but it was closed for Good Friday and only opens from 12mn that night! Haha.. We gave it a miss as we had to wake up very early the next morning for our Kangaroo Island day trip. We then met up Kent (a fren's brother whom I gave tuition to back in 2005) and his gf at Chinatown for a nice Chinese dinner. Great catching up with him!

After dinner @ around 1030pm, we thought it would be the end of our day sightseeing around Adelaide but Angela got a call from Timo and Soo and they suggested driving us up the Windy Point which overlooks the whole of Adelaide city... We took the chance with both hands and off we went! It was an awesome sight and making full use of the camera's night mode and tripod stand, we managed to get a number of great shots (and of coz a couple of unbelievably funny shots of myself)... Just going to show the picture in which all of us look good... Haha..


Forgot to mention that it was very chilly up there! Haha.. After that, we got back to Angela's place and turn in almost immediately! It was already after 12mn already.. Less than 5 1/2 hr of sleep left...

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Mel - Adel trip 2008 (3)

20 Mar 08 (Thursday) - Great Ocean Road
A Tour With A Difference - remember this family owned and operated travel company which transport its travelers in a 10 seater convertible Mercedes Benz small bus with an unique see-through roof.. Definitely one of its kind!
We went for this package even though it costs $25 more expensive than the usual packages as we wanted to make the most of the day trip and would love to hav personalised services. Indeed, we were not disappointed! Before I go into details of where we went, the additional perks of this package included a morning tea, delicious lunch at a nice restaurant and a warm evening snacks at a homely cafe...

We got picked up at Crown Towers at 715am and it was a 1.5 hr drive to our first stop for morning tea at Torquay beach... It was a great spot for some hot drinks and lamington cakes as it was soo cold that morning!

One of our very 1st picture for the day! Another great Aussie beach

Before we made our way to a number of beaches along the Great Ocean Road, we stopped at the Memorial Arch - which signal the start of the Great Ocean Road!

@ the Memorial Arch... Great picture point

We stopped by Lorne, Kennet River (to look for koalas which laze around the ecuplaytus trees!), Cape Patton Lookout and had our lunch at Apollo Bay (nice nice lunch!). After which, it was time for some exercise as we embarked on a bit of hike to view the 'Big Tree' at Lavers Hill.. It poured for a while when we went for lunch and thus it was a wet and slippery hike... But the air was so refreshing!


Dwarfed by the 'Big Tree'

A candid shot taken by our lovely tour guide - Grace

After working off our lunch, we stopped over at the highlight of the day tour - The 12 Apostles! No words can describe how marvellous these limestone stacks looked!




A picture tells a thousand words

After making a relatively short stop, we took numerous more pictures and videos of the majestic natural structures.. @ Loch Ard Gorge which we heard about the track shipwreck history, @ Razorback and the London Bridge which had a part of it collapsed just in recent years! Amazed with the art in which Mother Nature created for us to marvel...

Lord Ard Gorge - spectacular view



London Bridge where a part of it collapsed..

The London Bridge was our last full stop and before we made our way back to Mel at 530pm, we stopped by a quaint Port Campbell fishing village for a light evening snack. It was delicious quiche/salad/soup, etc... Really great food to fill our stomach before the 3 hours journey back to Mel city...
Din manage to have dinner with Mich that night as she drove Joey to the airport for her flight back to SG. But she kindly got up early the next morning to drive Haz and I to the airport for breakfast before our 9am flight to Adelaide for the 2nd leg of our trip! Can't thank Mich enough for housing us and taking good care of us when we are in Mel! Stay in tune for our Adelaide trip! Haha..

Monday, March 24, 2008

Mel - Adel trip 2008 (2)

19 Mar 08 (Wednesday) - Grampians

Highly recommended to be visited when in Mel as the Grampians are one of the world's oldest and most spectacular mountain ranges, rich in Aboriginal history and an abundance of wildlife...

Pick-up was at the Immigration Musuem at 740am. It was a full 3 hrs drive from Mel city to the heart of Grampians. Our first stop was at the Visitor Centre and we wandered off to the nearby bushland for close-up looks with the wild kangaroos and also taking great pictures with the mountains as our background.



Kangaroos behind us.. if you can spot them..



Nice pict taken with our newly bought tripod stand


As we walked through the grass patches, there were loads of kangaroo poo.. we were careful not to step on too many of them.. but after a while, you just give up.. just too much to not step on any.. haha.. Before we head off to our next stop, we stopped for lunch at Halls Gap (small town in the Grampians). We had kangaroo meat and it was cooked just nice! Apparently, if kangaroo meat is fully cooked, you can throw it away as it is not edible (too tough). Haha, has the texture of beef but not much smell... Tasty actually.. Maybe I was hungry..

MacKenzie Falls was our very next stop. The walk down to the waterfall approximated 700m and it was spectacular view... But of course, the climb back up was quite siongz.. Haha..




Other stops we had were at lookouts with great view of the greenery of the mountaineous areas. Weather is good and cool breeze kept the sunshine bearable. To get to the lookouts like Jaw of Death and Balconies Lookout, we need to hike for about a km but relatively flat land. Think that the key attraction of this trip is the sight-seeing and our objectives were achieved with lots of great photos and videos taken!

Nice and relaxed trip with lots of traveling on the road. Glad that I did not opt to do the self-drive as it would have been so tiring! Rested pretty much on the coach to and fro for the the whole trip! Haha.. Ready for the next day trip to the Great Ocean Road! It turned out to the best 1 day tour that both Haz and I had gone onto! Highly recommended as it was really a Tour with a Difference!

Mel - Adel trip 2008

It has been a long long time since I last blogged ya.... Lots had happened since my Aust Open blog. Haz's bday was celebrated and my family came over for the CNY period! Lots of golf during the weekends and then work and EBA (final CA module) project was completed and submitted on 15 Mar 08!

Before I go into details on those stuff that took place during the last 2 months which I did not have the luxury of time to blog, I will jump straight into the week that just passed.... The start of my post-secondment trip around Australia..... Bearing in mind that come July (proposed start of the post-secondment travels), it will be winter and knowing that weather will be cold, miserably and unpredictable then, we decided to travel to the southern parts of Australia first... So, we took the opportunity of the extra-long weekend of the Good Friday and Easter Monday holidays and traveled around Melbourne and Adelaide from 16 Mar - 23 Mar 08.

Let's me do a day-to-day summary of stuff we did! Haha.. It was fun stuff...

16 Mar 08 (Sunday) - F1 Grand Prix (Albert Park)

Flew in from Syd the previous night after submitting my EBA project 2 days in advance... Picked up at the Mel airport by xiao mei, Mich, and off we went to her place where she and Yishan (who flew off to NZ with her family on Sat morning) kindly housed both Haz and I!

Before we made our way to the Grand Prix on Sunday, both of us went to the Mel Visitor Centre to book our day trips to the Great Ocean Road (Thu) and Grampians (Wed). Mon and Tue will be our free and easy days to sightsee and shop around the Melbourne city...

Now to the ING Australian F1 Grand Prix.... Hot hot day! Apparently it was 38 degrees! And the heatwave was unbelievable at the trackside... Applied sunscreen for numerous times and still no help for our burning skin! Our General Admission tix allowed us to walk around the trackside but there were so few sheltered areas! No grandstand seats for us.. And the 'grass' patches are simply just dust! And as you would expected, drinks are sold at a premium.. $5 for a bottle! Counted ourselves lucky that we did not spend x times more on the grandstand tixs as most of them had no shelters too and to sit under that heat, I can't imagine enjoying the race...


Ready to be burnt for the day!


Map of the track-side



Matching colors... It was very stuffy in the covered tent actually!

Nothing beats the actual experience of watching the F1 cars zoomed past you at unbelievably quick speed and deafening sound! The ear plugs we bought came in useful! The safety car was out the very first lap of the race and it came out several more times and in the end, only 7 cars finished the race and considering the temperature on the track, it came as no surprise that the engines and parts of the cars blew up... Scary heat...

The heat got to dear and she nearly had a sunstroke and was so exhausted before the race was over... We ended up going off early so as to beat the crowd and it felt so good to escape the heat! Both of us must have lost quite a bit of weight that day given the amount of perspiration that we had! We got back to Mich's place and had a good wash up (whole body was covered with layers of sunscreen and dirt... imagine..).. Looking forward to the night race in SG in Sep 08!

Think this will be our only time catching a F1 race live (unless we get the most expensive tix) as watching on TV in the comfort of our home is definitely much more exciting! Haha..

Jap cusine for dinner before we went back for Mich to finish up her project while Haz and I visited Crown for some fun..


17 & 18 Mar 08 (Monday & Tuesday)

Shopping and sightseeing days... Free and easy... After hearing about the huge amount of money spent by Max and co when they were in Mel for the Aust Open, both Haz and I were filled with hope that we too could bag ourselves great bargains. We searched through DFO, the various factory outlets along Smith St (Nike, Adidas, Converse, etc..), Queen's Victoria Market, Melbourne Central, the various Arcades and laneway shops in Mel city and bought nothing much... Haha.. maybe we din go to the shops with really good discounts or unlucky to miss out any promotional deals...

But still, we spent about 1+day walking around Melbourne city for shopping and sightseeing activities. Great fun as the weather turned for the better on Tue... Cool breeze and healthy sunshine accompanied our walks. Korean food with Mich on Monday night and special thanks to Joey and Jovi for joining us for dinner on Tue night at a nice Chinese restaurant...

More spacious and tidy than Syd Paddy Market. A must visit shopping place!

Our real traveling starts the very next day.. Haha... Look out for my next post.. Surely will be full of pictures as the weather was great for the rest of our trip in Mel and Adel!